Jump to content

Live4FW's Snurktastic Fort Report


Recommended Posts

Introduction

Well this started out to be a father (me) & daughter (Kelly) attempt at a Trip Report. Well, Kelly was supposed to take the pictures and I would do the writing. However, a couple of issues cropped up.

1, I am having one heck of a time working with pictures in Photo bucket. There must be an easier way. Trying to resize, rotate, and fix them to post is driving me nuts.

1121102046-00.jpg

2. While I still don’t have all of my pictures gathered up (and what a task that has been – 4 cameras and 3 phones), it seems that I didn’t do a very good job of making sure that Kelly was getting the right pictures, they were not blurry, nor have fingers in them.

PB190457.jpg

PB190476.jpg

But it is all good, we had a great time planning this report and we are really enjoying bringing it to you.

So, with that being said, we are going to forge ahead but unfortunately, there will not be near as many pictures as I had planned. Hopefully, I won’t bore you with my writings.

Also, I will probably only be able to post a day at time so good news/bad news. Only one daily update but were gonna spread this out for your reading enjoyment/my sanity. I am maybe just stalling a bit to get the pics in better shape as well......

Prelude

Well, we shall start our story with a bit of an introduction. We are most definitely Disney addicts. However, like most of the folks in the US these days, we have had a change in jobs, reduction in income and increased expenses (college….aaarrrggghh or should I say woof woof). More about that in due time. Even though we have had these challenges we are a very close family and two of the things that have kept us close over the years have been Disney and camping. Both have suffered greatly over the last few years so that really added to the pressure to make this trip. We were originally going last Thanksgiving but reduced that trip to a few days at Port Orleans (2 vs 8 days and much less gas). That was a great trip and we found that Port Orleans is the next best thing to the Fort. But and that is a very big BUTT, it is not the same. I immediately rescheduled us for the September week long fall break. But then our PITA school board decided to change the school calendar in February. I jumped right on Disney website and booked Thanksgiving week 2011. At this point I had no idea what kind of financial shape we would be in by then or if we would even be able to go. A totally wonderful Stone Mountain GG sorta fixed it that come hell or high water we were going to keep these reservations. As the date grew closer, doubt started once again and we hatched a plan to save the trip. My MIL needed several sections of fence replaced and the LIVE4FW fence company was contracted. The trip was saved. There would be no Disney parks and I would drag my kids right across the front of the Magic Kingdom when we transferred from the Poly boat to the Fort, but it was all good. Here are a few pics from that trip to get us start

1121102204-00.jpg

1121102045-00.jpg

1121101625-00.jpg

Not too many pics from last years trip, we tried to do better this time.

Coming up tomorrow Day 1 or "Oh NO, The Dog Did What In The Trailer"

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, maybe we'll squeeze one more in today.

Day 1 >> OH NO, The Dog Did What in the Trailer!

Our plan today was to drive half way tonight and stay at a campground at the Georgia border. We realized that we were not going to get out of town sooner than 5PM so we decided to just wait a bit longer until 7pm and try to avoid some of the traffic on going through Atlanta. As Dave had to deal with WetAtlanta, we had to deal with HolidAtlanta which can be pretty treacherous in its own right. You see, most of the Atlanta Metro area has the whole week of Thanksgiving off so everyone is hitting the road tonight to mostly head to Florida it seems.

We finally get on the road about 7:15 and pull into the slowest McDonalds on the planet. 45 minutes later we are heading to the truck to finally get on the road. However, I thought I should check the trailer lights and sure enough, no left turn signal. As I am trying to open the lens cover the snap breaks. Bulb is burnt out and I don’t have a spare. Great! Oh well, Gorilla tape is my new best friend. Tape it on and hit the road. The thoughts of going through Atlanta with no turn signal on the trailer is not the way I wanted to start this trip. There will be other ways I didn’t want to start this trip coming soon enough. I will check for a replacement bulb as soon as we stop for gas. We made pretty good time and got through HolidAtlanta with only a few slowdowns. 180 miles later the truck says feed me. We pull into a gas station and fortunately they have a bulb two pack for $1.09. Wow, what a deal! Maybe my luck is turning.

Mrs. Live4FW goes to the trailer to get a few drinks out of the fridge and then I hear it! THE DOG PUKED ALL OVER THE TRAILER. Kadi, the once little pup in my avatar picture likes to travel in the trailer as long as the temperature is comfortable. We have no room in the truck so it would be a crate in the bed of the truck or in the trailer. We have let her free roam which means she goes into her corner gets on her bed and sleeps the whole way. Well, not tonight. We clean up the mess and make sure she is OK. We only have about 70 miles more to travel tonight so we press on. She was sick again and got sick even after we stopped. Fortunately, that would be the end of her tummy issues. She really has a great time the rest of the trip and even gets herself some Fort Firsts! We came up with a plan to barricade her in the dinette area for the rest of the trip and this really worked well.

PB190450.jpg

PB190451.jpg

PB190442-1.jpg

PB190157.jpg

We pulled into Eagles Roost at exit 5 and our site is ready for us. I had pre-reserved just in case they were busy. There are a lot of snowbirds heading down this time of year. But they were pretty open. It is a nice campground and we have stayed there about 3 or 4 times but I have never even been in their comfort stations. So I can’t attest to their cleanliness. They do have lots of pullthroughs which is nice for stopovers. It is about midnight after we get our second mess cleaned up. We head to bed and have to get up with her one more time.

Sorry only a couple pics for today but I don’t really think you wanted to see any of what we experienced. I will have some pics of the campground on day 2.

Edited by Live4FW
Link to post
Share on other sites

Poor Kadi. :( With my 6 there is always one that gets car sick. Funny thing though it isn't always the same one. I'm glad she got over her motion sickness.

We have always talked about stopping at Eagles Roost but the excitement of getting into Florida has kept us going til we hit Lake City. I still may try it one of these days.

Ok, still no pressure but I'm ready when you are. :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Dad had a dog that would start :barf: as soon as the car was started. It couldn't have been motion sickness - unless it was a learned response.

She would have stayed home if I thought this would have happened!

It is odd, we think she was under the weather before we ever started the trip. She has always traveled well. Usually, we can go in and out of the trailer and she won't even come off her bed. She generally sleeps the whole way.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I hope this trip gets better. Burnt out bulb? Broken lens cover? Doggie vomit? My goodness, you had your share of crappy luck. (Well, there's one saving grace, no doggie crap!)

We just had to get this crud out of the system so we could have some real fun!

Whenever one of our dogs barf, I'm always thankful that the accident didn't originate at the other end. ;) Hope the rest of your trip was filled with pixie dust.

YES!, I do remember saying as I was cleaning "sure glad it wasn't the other end!" :whew:

Poor Kadi. :( With my 6 there is always one that gets car sick. Funny thing though it isn't always the same one. I'm glad she got over her motion sickness.

We have always talked about stopping at Eagles Roost but the excitement of getting into Florida has kept us going til we hit Lake City. I still may try it one of these days.

Ok, still no pressure but I'm ready when you are. :)

We'll be back at it with an update tomorrow. I don't know how you do it with 6 of them, I have my hands full with 1

Thanks!!! :heart:

Glad you are enjoying it. It should pick up a bit of steam moving forward as there will be quite a bit more pics and certainly more fun!

Link to post
Share on other sites

PB190457.jpg

Scot,

I need a little help here.... I do realize that I am slow, and being from NC doesn't help much either, but could you help me decode this picture? A thumb in the way, image out of focus I can handle, but for the life of me I can't figure out what this is supposed to be. I even wondered if it was one of those pictures that if you stared at it for a while, some blazing image would pop out at me....

Duane

Link to post
Share on other sites

Scot,

I need a little help here.... I do realize that I am slow, and being from NC doesn't help much either, but could you help me decode this picture? A thumb in the way, image out of focus I can handle, but for the life of me I can't figure out what this is supposed to be. I even wondered if it was one of those pictures that if you stared at it for a while, some blazing image would pop out at me....

Duane

Just having some fun with you. That is a picture out of the back window of the truck at the bbq grill in the bed of the truck.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Scott-

You are off to a great start.

I am about to mention you and your family in my trip report, but I thought that I ought to pop in here to say that it was great to meet you and your family. I wish we could have spent some more time together, but I did enjoy sampling a few beers with you and your dad over at Dave's.

I'm glad that Duane asked about that photo- I was trying to figure it out too. It didn't help that I was reading "Side Surfer" above the knob that said "Side Burner." I was having a heck of a time figuring out what a Side Surfer was.

I hope you get the photobucket thing figured out. I'm sure between you and your DD you will. And don't worry about how long you take to write your report- go at your own pace and do a good job. No need to rush. I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing!

TCD

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lovin the report!!! I agree with everyone else on the pics!! Just toss em up on photobucket and link em!!! Quantity, not quality!!!!!!! (As anyone who has read my trip reports can attest, I post a LOT of blurry pics)

I think you must have spilled something out of a Red Solo Cup onto your camera! :rofl2:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey Scot! I'm glad you started your TR. I'm enjoying it so far. Although the subject matter could be a bit more enjoyable. Dog barf, burned out lightbulbs, broken lens covers, blurry camera. C'mon man! Don't you have any intestinal gas or vicious princesses to talk about??

Oh wait, that would be one of my reports. I guess I've got psycho princesses, and you've got barf. We all gotta have our muses, I suppose. :rofl2:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...